The present invention relates to continuous casting of metal particularly steel under utilization of a container; a mold or a moldlike metallurgical vessel being open at the bottom and from which casting is withdrawn under immediate and direct cooling in order to obtain rapid solidification. More particularly the invention relates to the continuous casting of metal under utilization of a casting process by means of which the casting is withdrawn from a mold or other vessel in a horizontal direction.
Castings made by means of process and equipment of the type to which the invention pertains are usually of a flat nature and refer to the making of metal plate or strip. The object is to provide a blank which can subsequently be rolled down in order to obtain metal sheet with as little deformation as possible. Rolling may be carried out either in a hot or a cold working process. In case or hot rolling the casting has a thickness of about 25 to 40 mm whereas in case of cold rolling the casting should be only as thin as 2-8 mm. Typically, the width of the metal strip plate or sheet stock is about 2000 mm.
The state-of-the-art as evidenced by "Handbuch des Stranggiessens", Dr. Erhard Herrmann, Alluminium-Verlag GmbH, Duesseldorf, 1958, Page 29, Note 48, alludes to casting of molten metal wherein the metal is poured onto one end of a partially heated and partially cooled table. As a result a strip is immediately formed into sheet stock by means of pairs of rolls arranged at the other end of the table. This method basically originated in 1907 in order to cast metal such as lead, tin, zinc, or alloys thereof. In 1908 this method was improved by replacing the stationary table by an endless belt (FIG. 61, 62) so as to avoid tearing of the striplike sheet stock prior to complete solidification. The sheet will be placed onto a stationary table only after having adequately and sufficiently solidified, and the sheet stock is then fed to the roll gap from that table.
Another method is known for continuous casting of metals under utilization of a container being open at the bottom by using two casting wheels which constitute the mold and the metal is poured directly in between the two wheels. Still another method is to pour molten metal in between two juxtaposed casting bands under lateral limitation of the casting cross section. The bands are suitably grooved and the process is also a continuous one. However, the known method using casting wheels and casting ribbons are disadvantaged by the fact that the casting process itself depends on the metallostatic or ferrostatic pressure of the metal column and on the configuration of the discharge opening of the vessel which pours the metal into the casting space between tapes, bands or wheels. It was found that adequately controlling the thickness of the casting is complicated or even impossible. Moreover, these methods are disadvantaged by the fact that changes in thickness for different castings is likewise endowed with significant problems and close to being impossible.